Commentary on China's bubbling politics and its military rise, raising awareness about autism, Euro zone fantasy, and plane crash.

Chinese questions and fears of a political upheaval.

Diplomat -- Signs of a New Tiananmen in China
Pervasive corruption, lawlessness among the ruling elites, and a sense of a loss of direction permeating all levels of Chinese society. The conditions for another Tiananmen may be there.

Quote worth noting.

“With soaring inequality, pervasive corruption, lawlessness among the ruling elites (as the Bo Xilai story has revealed), signs of division within the top hierarchy, and a sense of loss of direction permeating all levels of Chinese society, Chinese liberals, some of whom former political prisoners or blacklisted academics who can’t publish their works in the official media, may think that they have a new opportunity to push for democratic change.”

Related.

Financial Times -- So much for China’s year of doing nothing
This was supposed to be the year that nothing happened in China.

Related.

Economist -- Reimposing order
The authorities clamp down on rumours of political turbulence.

 

And it matters much more than in 1989.

Economist -- China’s military rise
There are ways to reduce the threat to stability that an emerging superpower poses.

In the United States one in 88 children have been diagnosed with autism. Autism Day.

Bloomberg -- Need for Autism Answers is Growing in Light of New Study
One in every 88 U.S. children has been diagnosed with autism or an autism-related disorder, according to a government report.

 

The euro zone cannot survive in its current form partly because it lacks labour mobility. Tick, tick, tick, tick ...

Project Syndicate -- A Centerless Euro Cannot Hold
With youth unemployment touching 50% in eurozone countries such as Spain and Greece, is a generation being sacrificed for the sake of a single currency that encompasses too diverse a group of countries to be sustainable?

Why it matters.

Telegraph -- Wolfson gurus see euro break-up as dangerous but liberating
A disorderly break-up of the euro would set off a cataclysmic chain-reaction and a collapse of Europe’s banking system, pushing the world into full-blown depression.

And the F35 debacle exposed. (ed’s note – looks like Peter Mackay will take the fall).

National Post -- F-35 debacle sees Canadians nearly played for fools
Thomas Mulcair’s question in the House of Commons got to the nub of the F-35 debacle. “Can the Prime Minister tell us who in his Cabinet is responsible for the F-35s?” asked the NDP leader.

 

National Post -- Peeling back the layers of misconduct in the F-35 fiasco
There are so many layers of misconduct in the F-35 affair that it is difficult to know where to start.

 

CBC -- The F-35 fiasco and Ottawa's culture of secrecy
The who-knew-what about the real costs of the F-35 fighter jet Canada wants to purchase is worrisome enough. But at the heart of the fiasco is a far more serious concern about what public honesty means to this government.

 

Impolitical -- Chart of F35 spending estimates